Chapter 1- Intro & conception of Psychopathology Flashcards
Conceptions of psychopathology- What is psychopathology as statistical deviance? Issue with it?
2pts
- Views psychopathology as a deviation from statistical psychological normality
- No definitive line of what is considered “normal” vs “abnormal”
Conceptions of psychopathology- What is psychopathology as social deviance? Issue with it?
2pts
- View psychopathology as abnormal based on social and cultural rules and conventions rather than by psychological tests or measures
- Issue- what is considered a mental illness varies across cultures so it’s not accurate
Conceptions of psychopathology- What is psychopathology as maladaptive (dysfunctional) behavior?
3pts
- If a behavior “works” for the person and helps them deal with challenges and daily life then we say its adaptive
- If a behavior does not “work” for the person and perhaps makes things worse we consider it maladaptive
- Issue- no objective or scientific way of making a clear distinction between adaptive and maladaptive
Conceptions of psychopathology- What is psychopathology as distress and disability ? Issue?
3pts
- View psychopathology as dyscontrol or dysregulation
- Hard to find a distinction between normal and abnormal as people differ in their threshold of for how much distress or disability they can tolerate before seeking professional help
What model is this?
That attempt to describe guidelines for distinguishing between individuals who are normal or disordered and for determining which specific abnormality or disorder a person has to the exclusion of other disorders.
- Basically people either have a given disorder or they do not
Categorical model
What model is this?
That assumes that normality and abnormality, as well as effective and ineffective psychological functioning, lie along a continuum; so-called psychological disorders are simply extreme variants of normal psychological phenomena and ordinary problems in living.
Dimensional model
